


Introspection

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-02 13:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blair wonders how to get Jim to agree to tests on his senses</p>
            </blockquote>





	Introspection

**Author's Note:**

> Writtene for Sentinel Thursday for the prompt 'dial'

Blair sighed as - for the thousandth time - he wondered how best to convince his stubborn sentinel that although his senses were natural, an urban environment was _un_ natural. Jim didn't say much about his months there, but he had said enough to give Blair some idea of the life he had led during that time. In the jungles of Peru, when Enqueri had been living with the Chopek, control had been relatively easy; and in addition he had been guided by a recognised shaman, a man some years older...

Diverted for a moment, Blair debated that. Every tribe he had ever visited had had an older man - occasionally a woman - as shaman; in one tribe the shaman had been born a man but lived as a woman. Many of them had had apprentices who would become the tribal shaman when their mentors died... so some tribes, at some point, had to have had a relatively young shaman, although Blair had never met one.

Was that part of the problem he was having? Not only was he younger than Jim, he wasn't a shaman. He was just a grad student with some knowledge of sentinels gleaned from a book written over a century previously by an explorer who, unlike many of his contemporaries, had been interested enough in the people he met to find the abilities of a handful of them fascinating enough to be... 

A curiosity, Blair admitted to himself. A phenomenon extensive enough that a book could be devoted to it... but how accurate was it, really? Had Burton been extrapolating sometimes inaccurate 'facts' from what he saw?

Because any tribes Blair had visited had been evasive on the subject. Knowing about sentinels, he had guessed, from observation, that at least some of them had one, even who 'that one' was; but nobody had ever admitted it. Had Burton, a century earlier, found it easier to persuade the tribes to talk about their watchmen - and if so, what had happened since then to make them more wary of admitting it, even to someone who knew about the existence of such men? 

He forced his thoughts back to their original track.

Jim had grasped the idea of dials for his senses relatively easily; he had totally not grasped the idea that he had to work at mastering these dials. He didn't seem able to accept that he had to work at keeping control over his senses honed, although he still hadn't learned to respond instantly to a sudden noise or bright light - the most common unexpected stimuli - and an unexpected injury could leave him writhing in agony for altogether too long.

Blair frowned thoughtfully. Wait a minute...

Jim accepted that he had to work at keeping fit. He went regularly to the gym, ran at least five miles several times a week. Okay, he did have a liking for junk food, but even Blair himself - despite his preference for healthy eating, even Blair liked the occasional Wonderburger.

Could he use that to persuade Jim that he needed to practice using the dials?

Well, it was always worth trying.


End file.
